Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts 🧬 a suboptimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming overly aggressive. Tilting is closely associated with another poker term, "steam".
Placing 🧬 an opponent on tilt or dealing with being on tilt oneself is an important aspect of poker. It is a 🧬 relatively frequent occurrence due to frustration, animosity against other players, or simply bad luck.
The term originated from pinball where physically 🧬 tilting the machine causes some games to flash the word "TILT" and freeze the flippers.[1]
Tilt is also common in other 🧬 games, especially chess and esports. Tilting in esports causes players to "lose control due to anger". The most extreme reaction 🧬 is termed a "ragequit", angrily leaving the match or quitting the game, physically turning off the device or breaking a 🧬 part like a monitor or control device by smashing it.[2]